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Don’t shoot the piano player … he’s not guilty! French cineast Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘the only things you need for a cool movie are a girl and a gun’. Bang, bang, they shoot my baby down… There are many album covers with the ‘gun theme’. Not to promote the weapon, but it gives a little tension to the image. Johnny Cash or Marty Robbins as western heroes, a reggae band like The Upsetters or Jane Fonda with her lasergun on the sleeve of the soundtrack album for Barbarella. Too cool for words. Or Alfred Hitchcock with an axe on the right side of his head and a revolver on his left (Music To Be Murdered By), Thelonious Monk with a kalashnikov over his shoulder on the album Underground, or Serge Gainsbourg dressed for his crime passional with a bouquet of roses and a revolver. Well … don’t try this at home!

Remembering The Valentines classic reggae single Blam Blam Blam (Guns Fever) (this is not the record cover)

Among the greatest cartoonists / caricaturists from the past century is without doubt the New Yorker Al Hirschfeld. His fine line technique of drawing stylistic and often swinging’ portraits of jazz musicians, classical composers, comedy and theatre personalities is still sensational. His list of portrayed people is very long and many of them where made especially for record covers. He also made drawings for The New York Times and The New York Herarld Tribune, and some nice ones of a band from Liverpool. Permanent collections of him are in The Metropolitan Museum Of Art and the New York Museum Of Modern Art. He was almost one hundred years old when ‘The Line King’ died in 2003!

The New York society

American Songbook:

Louise Carlyle & Bob Shaver – Cole Porter Songs (Walden W-301) 1953

Nancy Walker – Lyrics By Ira Gershwin (Walden W-300) 1953

Various Artists – The Music Of Harold Arlen (Walden 2LP W-306/307) 1955